This is not like a big reveal Antique road show. But one day in December 2023, David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, searched in the digital archives of the Harvard Law Library when he clicked on a document that would be the biggest discovery of his career.

According to the archives description, it was marked as a 1327 copy of the Magna Carta of 1327, "somewhat rubs and wet." But Carpenter knew almost immediately when he opened the file it was not advertised: "What did I see in front of my eyes? In my opinion, in my opinion, this was the original of 1300 Magna Carta." He immediately thought, "Oh my God, this didn't know at all."

This was not only a great discovery for carpenters, but for Harvard - especially because the university paid just $27.50 for the document in 1946 (about $460 in inflation). For sale in 2007 $21.3 million.

The Magna Carta is one of the most important documents in history and has had a profound impact on the makers of the U.S. Constitution. It was first signed by King John of England in 1215 to limit the power of the king and to determine that even the monarchy was not limited to the law. It also guarantees certain rights, such as the protection of the right to arbitrary imprisonment and due process.

But the file underwent six different iterations throughout the 13th century, the last one, dating back to 1300 years. “In a sense, this is the last Magna Carta…the final emphasis on Magna Carta,” Carpenter said.

Searching in Harvard’s Digital Archives, there are some giveaways that make the carpenter tilt the real copy he is looking for. "Especially the letter E of 'eduardus', the king confirmed the charter...it looks very similar to the letters in other originals in the famous document," Carpenter said. "Obviously, I confirmed Magna Carta. The last date was 1300."

But his intuition still needs academic support. Carpenter brought in a colleague, Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia and an expert at Magna Carta. "We merged the power to try to prove we're right because, first impressions can be misleading," Carpenter said.

They contacted Harvard University and asked for an UV scan so that they could check the documents more carefully. At that time, Jonathan Zittrain, president of the Harvard Law School library, first learned that the document had some interest.

"There is not always a 'Eureka' moment, like 'ah, yes'," Zittrain said. "You have to tie a lot of threads together to find out the authenticity of something."

“We are very lucky that our UK colleagues have a deep expertise on this topic and can look at a digital expertise He added: "Our collection of copies. Then, they can do a lot of preliminary work from the table."

The carpenter said that although the copies of Magna Carta are abundant, Originals are rare - Only about twenty-two known exist. There are only six other known copies of the document in the 1300 edition, such as Harvard University's documentation.

Zittrain said it was accidental to discover the authenticity of the file, which was "no one might think it's in the card."

Not only did he praise the carpenter and Vincent, he also believed that Harvard decided to digitize its archives so that the public could access them. Zittrain added: "Of course, it makes you wonder, my goodness, what else do we have between the sofa cushions?"